“The power plant--it’s thousands of years old!” Mark wasn’t looking at Zip--he was still looking forward, as if his eyes were being drawn to the controls. “Pressing this button...” he stopped and swallowed hard, and blinked twice. “Pressing this button is the last step in activating the rest of the power plant. It should give us the power we need, but--but it’s clear that it hasn’t been activated for thousands of years. There’s no way to tell whether it’s safe. This is a complicated system. If something is wrong,” Mark slowly turned to face Zip, “If something is wrong, if a bolt has slipped into the wrong place, if Zimbardo bypassed a vital circuit somewhere, or if a conduit is stopped up anywhere, all the energy this plant can produce could blow back at us. The entire works could explode into a million pieces.” Zip looked at the floor for an instant, then looked up again and stared directly into Mark’s eyes. “You’re right, Mark; but there’s no other choice. You have to do it.” Mark’s exhaled quickly. “Oh, I know, Zip--I know. But as I reached out my hand, I had a sudden chill that our destruction was a second away. It just didn’t _feel_ right. And if this asteroid blows into fragments, then Earth will be peppered with _hundreds_ of devastating impacts!” Zip slowly turned and faced the silent crowd. Every face was marked with grave intensity. Joe stood at the back, his face drawn and tense. “You all heard,” Zip said. “But you all know that we have no choice.” No one said anything. A few men dropped their eyes and shuffled their feet. Zip turned to Mr. Madera in silent appeal. Madera nodded very slowly. Then Mark wiped both hands on his shirt and slowly reached out and pressed the last button. A distant grinding noise as of gears engaging sounded from far away. There was a whooshing sound as of air filling a giant bag. The grinding sound leveled off into a bare hum. The lights gradually came on. The men cheered. Mark looked relieved. The tension under which he had been operating quickly released. His face wrinkled up and tears began to flow down his cheeks. Then the bare hum began to build. It turned into a whine, and then into a shriek. The floor began to shudder. Mark wiped his eyes and stared at the screen. “The reaction is starting, but the energy level is climbing much faster than it should! Something’s wrong! _Something’s wrong!!_” The men began to hear small explosions. There was a popping sound as a flexible tube burst a few yards away. Tinkling glass rained down in several places as light bulbs popped with the influx of too much energy. Mark began to flip rapidly through files on the screen.